Not gonna lie, I’m definitely more interested in Taichi, Yamato and Takeru’s side rather than Koshiro and the rest’s side. Especially since it feels like the plot is moving forward with the whole Holy Digimon situation while Calmaramon and Algomon taking over ships to crash into Tokyo just feels like a different skinned Digimon Adventure movie situation that was ALREADY used at the start of this series. So I’ll be mostly just talking about the plot point with the Holy Digimon since nothing of significance really happened with the others since we all know that Calmaramon definitely didn’t go down just like that.
Anyways, let’s talk about the Holy Digimon plotline. Takeru and the others make their way through the dark castle’s labyrinth with Takeru feeling the Holy Digimon calling to him. (Also how the heck did they even climb that wall??? There were no crevices where they could have climbed easily like that!) We get a bit more dialogue and personality from Takeru and how determined the little guy is. For someone so young, he sure has a lot of drive and I respect him for that… even if it feels like it came a little too fast considering how the series was set up with him wanting to fight just by seeing Yamato and the others fighting with their Digimon.
They eventually make it to where Skullknightmon is about to try and corrupt the Digitama and an awesome fight scene ensues. Skullknightmon is pretty interesting, not only in design, but also in combat. For being very robotic personality-wise, Skullknightmon sure is fluid in his movements. And honestly, Skullknightmon’s fighting style was really fun to watch as he would constantly switch between different weapons with flawless ease. Basically giving Greymon and Garurumon little to no time to even retaliate. Man, I really like the fight choreography when they do things besides sending laser beams at each other. The hand to hand fighting is just always really well done in this series. I also can’t help but wonder just what is going on with Skullknightmon since he seems to be “glitching?” Is that just naturally how he is or is it something more since apparently Skullknightmon is a very popular antagonist from one of the past Digimon series. So I have no idea what personality this guy has or if he has one.
However, when Greymon and Garurumon jump into their ultimate stages, things start turning in their favor… until Skullknightmon evolves into a freaking transformer as Darkknightmon. Not gonna lie, my mind immediately went “Batman” when I saw Darkknightmon’s name lol. I was a little disappointed to see him evolve since whenever someone evolves into a bigger version, the fight choreography suffers a bit and becomes a bit more basic due to them often just resorting to hitting each other with full body tackles or laser beams. Because Skullknightmon was smaller, it allowed for more interesting movement, but once he evolved into a bulkier form, animation for it became more difficult especially due to the detail on that thing.
Due to the power up from Devimon, Weregarurumon and Metalgreymon were having a lot more trouble with Darkknightmon now that they were on the same level. (Also I was surprised to see that Skullknightmon was just a Champion) While that was going on, Takeru took a chance to try and save the Digitama, even risking climbing over Darkknightmon and jumping into a pit of miasma to do it. At this point, I feel like I’m a lot more stressed over Takeru taking part in dangerous things than Yamato. When the boy was slipping off the edges of those floating cubes I was just like: BOI. At least he was able to catch the Digitama before it hit the miasma though with the help of Yamato. I’m a LITTLE disappointed that not much came from Yamato being overprotective of Takeru. I’ll forgive this travesty if it comes up later, but for now, disappointed. Him saying that he rather have Takeru sit out of this mess doesn’t really count because he’s saying it rather than actually showing it. And even when Takeru runs out and does things, Yamato doesn’t immediately follow after him to try and keep him out of trouble. So I have a hard time seeing just how overprotective Yamato actually is over Takeru.
It’s very hard for me to not compare the kids’ development to the original since I feel they did a lot better in the original when it came to character development. On the flip side, I do think this series does a better job portraying the personality and development of the partner Digimon more than the original. I must say that it was really sweet of Gabumon declaring he’d protect Takeru up until he got his partner back. Gabumon is just such a sweetie, wanting to protect those that Yamato cares about. It was also touching how much Takeru’s determination inspired Weregarurumon and I found it interesting that it was mostly because of Takeru to help him unleash his new ability rather than Yamato. Though I suppose Weregarurumon’s drive to protect Takeru matched that of Yamato’s in that moment, which ultimately lead to his upgrade. And while the mechanical wings were cool and all, it did feel like it clashed a little with Weregarurumon’s style. They didn’t mesh too well. But it was still awesome.
Also I found it hilarious that the power up also made him a little bigger lol.
Because of Weregarurumon being smaller and his attacks mostly contrives from close combat, I’ve really enjoyed seeing him fight in this series. While I have a little problem with the clashing styles, the maneuverability and blades Weregarurumon gains with this power up allows for more variability in his combat, especially when it comes to aerial combat. Even though it sadly ended with a laser attack, but at least it wasn’t ALL lasers so I’ll let it go. I’m also happy to see that the power ups aren’t limited to just Taichi and Agumon. Hopefully this extends to the other kids as well.
When the Digitama started hatching and freaking OBLITERATED the dark castle, I couldn’t help but laugh at how anticlimactic and hilarious the reveal of the Holy Digimon was in it’s baby state. It’s so cute and just a freaking blob, but it caused so much destruction on the enemy. And while the baby made it out okay, I don’t think it’s out of the woods quite yet, especially when Devimon finally makes his full appearance without any shadows or anything obstructing him. And it’s revealed that he and the Holy Digimon are actually old friends… now that’s a twist I want to know more of. Deats… I NEED THE DEATS.
